"I don't know whether you've got a strange power, but about three months after that I had a phone call from somebody saying, 'Things are changing at the BBC - would you be interested?'," Dan told Eamonn.

Eamonn Holmes left his presenting role at Sky's Sunrise programme last month (Sky News/Andi Southam/PA)

Dan, who previously hosted Afternoon Edition on BBC Radio 5 Live and Football Focus on BBC One, also said that when he first made the switch he could see people questioning his ability to cover serious news stories.

"When I moved, I could see that concern in people's eyes - how's he going to deal with interviewing the prime minister?" he said, adding that he "didn't sleep" the night before covering his first big story - the conclusion of the Hillsborough disaster inquests.

Dan said: "Not because I was worried, but because I knew it was important that I couldn't get anything wrong, not just for myself but for the people I was representing, those survivors of Hillsborough and the families of the 96 who cared so much about the content of what I was going to say."

(Radio Times)

The full interview is in this week's Radio Times, on sale from November 15.